75 



Felder, Spec. Lepid., 1S64, p. 26, gives Asiaticus Menetr. as 

 var. of MacJiaon, and in explanatory note. p. 75, says that the 

 hind wings are shorter than in the typical Machaon and more pro- 

 duced in the anal region. He gives the localities as India and 

 Himalaya, and queries whether the Kamtchatkan form is the same 

 thing. 



It seems to me that the name Asiatica of Menetries does not 

 apply to the prevailing type in Southern Asia, but only to a cer- 

 tain variety of same, in which the edge of the border of hind 

 wings is straight and placed very near the cell, and that the pre- 

 vailing type is so far unnamed. 



Mr. Scudder described P. Aliaska in Pr. Bost. Soc. N. H., 5, 

 p. 45, 1869, as a distinct species, and compared it at length with 

 P. Zolicaon, Bd., for its justification. Of course, as compared with 

 Zolicaon, it is distinct, but the comparison should have been made 

 with the Asiatic Macliaon. 



So far as I am able to discover from the examples under 

 view, the American form differs from the Himalayan and all the 

 old world types, i. In having the hind margins of the fore wings 

 decidedly convex, often largely so, and that in both sexes, which 

 is owing to the shorter costal margin in the former. In other 

 words, the fore wings of the typical MacJiaon are more produced. 

 2. The black parts are more intensely colored, and less dusted 

 with yellow scales, and the nervures and branches, particularly 

 on secondaries, and the median nervules of primaries, are very 

 considerably edged with black. In most of the old world ex- 

 amples the hind wings have no black except at end of cell, and 

 on the median nervure against cell, so that the wing is divided 

 into a yellow area, which includes the base and disk, and a black 

 area, namely, the marginal border. The Himalayan examples 

 resemble the American in this respect. The same difference 

 holds on comparing the lower sides ; that is to say, the Amer- 

 ican form is more melanic than the old world forms, excepting 

 the Himalayan. If M. Menetries had not limited his Asiatica to 

 the examples which have a straight edge to the inner side of the 

 marginal border of hind wings, probably his name should cover 

 the American form. But, as he saw fit to limit it, I think the 

 usual Himalayan type is unnamed, and the American certainly 

 may be designated as Aliaska, Scudder. There is a great uni- 

 formity between all the American examples under view, viz., 

 four from Hudson's Bay and eight from Alaska. Mr. Scudder 

 says sixteen specimens were obtained by Lieut. Dall, and we 

 may infer that he examined them and found them essentially 

 of one type, as he says nothing of differences. Moreover, he had 

 at same time one of my Hudson's Bay specimens, and alludes to 

 it as being like the others. 



Machaon seems to have been first noticed on this continent 

 by Mr. C. Drcxler, who traveled in British America, under the 



